Author: Catherine II (Empress of Russia)Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 302
Book Description
Correspondence of Catherine the Great when Grand-duchess
Author: Catherine II (Empress of Russia)Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 302
Book Description
The Cambridge Edition of the Correspondence of John Cleland
Author: John ClelandPublisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108602363
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 535
Book Description
The first collected edition of John Cleland's correspondence, this volume provides a rare insight into a significant literary life and into jobbing authorship in the eighteenth century. All known letters by and to Cleland are included entire, alongside letter excerpts, diary entries and documents in which he is discussed by friends, enemies, family members and distant acquaintances. The volume also includes Cleland's christening record, a manuscript essay composed by Cleland in French on 'Litterateurs', and the will of Cleland's mother Lucy, whose many codicils reveal her determination to prevent her profligate son from squandering her fortune. Interspersed throughout are telling remarks about Cleland from figures such as Alexander Pope, Samuel Foote, Claude-Pierre Patu, and, most revealing and intriguing of all, vignettes by the great biographer James Boswell. The volume makes several new attributions and demonstrates for the first time the extent of Cleland's participation in the European Enlightenment.
Catherine the Great
Author: John T. AlexanderPublisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199874301
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 457
Book Description
One of the most colorful characters in modern history, Catherine II of Russia began her life as a minor German princess, until the childless Empress Elizabeth and Catherine's own scheming mother married her off to the Grand Duke Peter of Russia at age sixteen. By thirty-three, she had overthrown her husband in a bloodless coup and established herself as Empress of the multinational Russian Empire, the largest territorial political unit in modern history. Portrayed both as a political genius who restored to Russia the glory it had known in the days of Peter the Great and as a despotic foreign adventuress who usurped the Russian throne, murdered her rivals, and tyrannized her subjects, she was, by all accounts, an extraordinary woman. Catherine the Great, the first popular biography of the empress based on contemporary scholarship, provides a vivid portrait of Catherine as a mother, a lover, and, above all, an extremely savvy ruler. Concentrating on her long reign (1762-96), John Alexander examines all aspects of Catherine's life and career: the brilliant political strategies by which she won the acceptance of a nationalistic elite; her expansive foreign policy; the domestic reforms with which she revamped the Russian military, political structure, and economy; and, of course, her infamous love life. Beginning with an account of the dramatic palace revolt by which Catherine unseated her husband and a background chapter describing the circumstances of her early childhood and marriage, Alexander then proceeds chronologically through the thirty-four years of her reign. Presenting Catherine in more human terms than previous biographers have, Alexander includes numerous quotations from her reminiscences and notes. We learn, for instance, not only the names and number of her lovers, but her understanding of what many considered a shocking licentiousness. "The trouble is," she wrote, "that my heart would not willingly remain one hour without love." The result of twenty years' research by one of America's leading narrative historians of modern Russia, this truly impressive work offers a much-needed, balanced reappraisal of one of history's most scandal-ridden figures.
Catherine the Great
Author: Virginia RoundingPublisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312378639
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 612
Book Description
RA great thumping triumph of a bookS ("London Telegraph"), this is the first comprehensive modern biography of Catherine the Great to explore her both as a woman and empress.
Catherine the Great
Author: Michael StreeterPublisher: Haus Publishing
ISBN: 9781905791064
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 182
Book Description
A fascinating life of a ruler who was deservedly styled 'the Great'
Catherine the Great
Author: Simon DixonPublisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1847651925
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 465
Book Description
When Catherine II died in St Petersburg in 1796 the world sensed the loss of the most celebrated monarch of Europe - something no one would have predicted at the birth sixty-seven years before of an obscure German princess, Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, later married off to the pathetic heir to the Russian throne. There were few greater transformations of fortunes in history. Sophie/Catherine had come to rule in her own right over the largest state in existence since the fall of the Roman Empire. She was branded both a usurper and an assassin when she seized power from her wretched husband in 1762. Yet she survived the initial succession crisis, and went on to occupy the Russian throne for thirty-four years. In the process, she turned her new empire from peripheral pariah to European great power.
Correspondence of Catherine the Great, when grand-duchess, with Sir Charles Hanbury-Williams and letters from Count Poniastowski
Author: Catherine II (Empress of Russia)Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : fr
Pages : 0
Book Description
Catherine the Great: Selected Letters
Author: Catherine The GreatPublisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019105612X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 481
Book Description
'Your Majesty may find it extraordinary that I should answer with a shipment of fruit your letter of 6 August, in which you inform me that you are sending the plan for a treaty, and that of the 8 September, in which you are so good as to share with me equally important intelligence. Things big and small often come from the same source: my watermelons derive from the same principles as our planned alliance...' (To Frederick the Great) Catherine the Great's letters present a vivid picture of Russia in a momentous age. They also offer a unique account of her personal development and intimate life, her strategic acumen as a diplomat and military commander, and her political skills at the Russian court and in handling foreign monarchs. Born a German princess, Catherine married into the Russian royal family and came to the throne after a coup. As absolute ruler for 34 years she presided over the expansion of the Russian empire, legislated actively to reform the country in keeping with the principles of the Enlightenment, actively promoted the arts and sciences, and in her correspondence engaged with the most renowned minds in Europe, among them Diderot and Voltaire. Her letters are her literary masterpiece, written to a wide circle of associates and friends, not least her most celebrated lover and ally, Potemkin. Combining her wit, charm, and quick eye for detail, they entertain and tell the griping story of a self-made woman and legendary ruler. This edition of the letters offers a taste of Catherine's entire writing career, with biographies of Catherine's addressees, a thorough overview of her reign and an analysis of Catherine's literary skill as a letter-writer. Organized chronologically and thematically into six periods, each section also features an introduction to the domestic, personal and foreign policy contexts out of which her letters emerge.
Catherine the Great & Potemkin
Author: Simon Sebag MontefiorePublisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0593467914
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 689
Book Description
From the author of The Romanovs: a vivid account of history's most successful political partnership—as sensual and fiery as it was creative and visionary. Catherine the Great was a woman of notorious passion and imperial ambition. Prince Potemkin—wildly flamboyant and sublimely talented—was the love of her life and her co-ruler. Together they seized Ukraine and Crimea, territories that define the Russian sphere of influence to this day. Their affair was so tumultuous that they negotiated an arrangement to share power, leaving each of them free to take younger lovers. But these “twin souls” never stopped loving each other. Drawing on the pair’s intimate letters and on vast research, Simon Sebag Montefiore's widely acclaimed biography restores these imperial partners to their rightful place as titans of their age.
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